Fear Factor

This past weekend I attended a workshop through WRW. It was a fun and very helpful workshop by Denise McInery about using improve to spark your creativity and get to know your characters. But what really resounded with me is something Denise told us about a brainstorming session with a critique group. She said that during the session, many people kept saying, "yes, but ..." to her ideas. It was giving her affirmation and then taking it away at the same time. She didn't write for nearly two months, afraid that her ideas weren't good enough. She'd rewrite a paragraph over and over again because she was afraid that it still wasn't there yet. She said the best anyone can do for other writers is say "yes, and ..." which was part of an exercise we performed. Two simple words can help encourage someone and still add your valuable ideas to the pot. I have been struggling lately with rejections. I've gotten a lot of "yes, but ..." and now I realize why I've been avoiding putting the pen to the paper.

I'm scared.

I'm afraid that I don't have what it takes. I'm afraid that I'm going to fail again. This fear is paralyzing and annoying. But now that I recognize it, I can work to overcome it and change my perspective.

"Fail. Fail again. Fail better."—Samuel Beckett